Proposed Cuts Land With A Thunk In Congress: ‘The Budget Was Dead Before The Ink Was Dry’

The Washington Post:
Even Some Republicans Balk At Trump’s Plan For Steep Budget Cuts
While some fiscally conservative lawmakers, particularly in the House, found a lot to praise in Trump’s plan to balance the budget within 10 years, most Republicans flatly rejected the White House proposal. The divide sets up a clash between House conservatives and a growing number of Senate Republicans who would rather work with Democrats on a spending deal than entertain Trump’s deep cuts. “This is kind of the game,” said Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Tex.). “We know that the president’s budget won’t pass as proposed.” (Snell, Paletta and DeBonis, 5/23)

The Wall Street Journal:
Bipartisan Pushback Greets Trump’s Proposed Budget
“I hate to say it, but I would say the budget was dead before the ink was dry,” Rep. Don Young (R., Alaska), who opposes the budget’s elimination of two programs in his state. Payments to Medicaid, the federal-state health program for the poor, would be cut by more than $600 billion over a decade from levels projected under current law in addition to proposed Medicaid cuts under the House bill repealing and replacing much of the Affordable Care Act. (Davidson, Peterson and Andrews, 5/23)

The Associated Press:
Icy Reception To Trump Budget From Fellow Republicans
Longtime GOP Rep. Hal Rogers of Kentucky declared proposed cuts to safety net and environmental proposals "draconian." "I don't think the president's budget is going anywhere," said Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, asked if he's concerned about the message sent by slashing the Medicaid program for the poor and disabled. (Werner, 5/23)

The New York Times:
Republicans Will Reject Trump’s Budget, But Still Try To Impose Austerity
Finally some good news for President Trump: His new budget stands absolutely no chance of being enacted by Congress. Moving forward with the cuts outlined in the $4.1 trillion spending plan created by the budget director, Mick Mulvaney, formerly one of the most determined fiscal hawks in Congress, would no doubt have major repercussions and compound the peril of Republicans already facing upheaval over their health care proposals. It would most likely hurt some of the very voters in rural and economically distressed corners of the nation who catapulted Mr. Trump to the White House and Republicans to control of the House and Senate. The effect on those constituents would be quickly felt. (Hulse, 5/23)

The Associated Press:
Cabinet Members Head To Capitol Hill To Defend Trump Budget
Top officials in President Donald Trump’s Cabinet are heading to Capitol Hill to defend his plans to cut domestic programs and parry Democratic criticism of his tax proposals. Budget Director Mick Mulvaney appears Wednesday before the House Budget panel while Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin will testify at the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee. The budget contains virtually no further detail on taxes beyond the cuts the administration proposed in a one-page outline last month. (Taylor, 5/24)

McClatchy:
Trump’s Gift To At-Risk Republicans? A Budget They Can Bash
President Donald Trump may have handed Republicans leery of supporting him a great gift: a spending plan that calls for deep cuts to some of the country’s most popular programs – and one they can rail against. Indeed, it did not take long for congressional Republicans on Tuesday to distance themselves from the White House’s $4.1 trillion budget blueprint, promising their constituents they’d fight Trump’s ideas. (Clark, 5/23)

The administration's Medicaid proposals draw particular criticism from both sides of the aisle —

The Hill:
GOP Senators Bristle At Trump's Medicaid Cuts
GOP senators are balking at President Trump’s proposed steep cuts to the nation's healthcare system for the poor, worrying that it could leave millions without health plans. Trump’s budget proposal would gut Medicaid by $627 billion over the next decade, on top of the $839 billion that would be cut under the House-passed ObamaCare repeal-and-replace bill. Combined, Trump and House Republicans have proposed slashing $1.4 trillion from Medicaid. (Hellmann and Weixel, 5/23)

CQ Roll Call:
White House's Proposed Medicaid Cuts Draw Quick Protests
The OMB budget says Medicaid outlays would drop by $627 billion in the decade ending in fiscal 2027, falling to $4.70 trillion. This appears to largely reflect a Trump administration plan to reduce the flow of federal dollars to state Medicaid funds beyond the reduction proposed in the House GOP bill (HR 1628). OMB then has a separate placeholder item in its budget for $1.25 trillion in expected savings from Republican revisions to the 2010 health care law. (Young, 5/23)

Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton blasts the president's budget —

The Associated Press:
Clinton: Trump Budget Shows 'Unimaginable' Cruelty
Hillary Clinton proclaimed Tuesday that President Donald Trump's budget shows an "unimaginable level of cruelty" for millions of Americans and children. The former Democratic presidential nominee, who recently declared herself part of the Trump resistance, lashed out at the Republican president's spending plan in aggressive terms after being honored in New York City by the Children's Health Fund, a nonprofit organization that helps provide health care to poor and homeless children. (Peoples, 5/23)

This is part of the KHN Morning Briefing, a summary of health policy coverage from major news organizations. Sign up for an email subscription.

Thank you for your interest in supporting Kaiser Health News (KHN), the nation’s leading nonprofit newsroom focused on health and health policy. We distribute our journalism for free and without advertising through media partners of all sizes and in communities large and small. We appreciate all forms of engagement from our readers and listeners, and welcome your support.

KHN is an editorially independent program of KFF (formally, The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation). You can support KHN by making a contribution to KFF, a non-profit charitable organization that is not associated with Kaiser Permanente.

Click the button below to go to KFF’s donation page which will provide more information and FAQs. Thank you!